Brussels, 03/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) “would answer your call for a more harmonised approach to corporate taxation with the EU, while still respecting the sovereign rights of the member states in this area”, the Commissioner for Taxation, Pierre Moscovici, has stated in a letter to the Italian, French and German finance ministers.
This was Moscovici's response earlier this week to the letter of the three ministers calling upon him to start work, by the end of 2014, on an 'anti-BEPS' (base erosion and profit shifting) directive, along the lines of the OECD action plan to fight tax optimisation (EUROPE 11209).
The Commissioner hopes to present the College of Commissioners with a “comprehensive roadmap identifying how to improve our tools and possibly defining new ones in order to better address harmful tax competition, base erosion and profit shifting”. He stressed that the Commission's work will very much reflect the key issues identified by the three ministers: the need for increased tax transparency, tightening up the anti-abuse provisions and the revision of the EU's tools to fight tax havens. Any legislative initiative must be perfectly in line with the OECD's BEPS project, the Commissioner stressed.
Calling for new impetus in negotiations on the CCCTB, which have been dragging on for a number of years, Moscovici stresses that a common consolidated corporate tax base would guarantee a “closer link between taxation and economic activity” and would greatly assist all national authorities in collecting the revenues that they are rightfully due.
Committee of investigation at the EP? On Wednesday, the Greens/EFA group at the European Parliament was still trying to gather the 188 signatures of MEPs needed to set up a committee of investigation into tax fraud and tax dumping, following the LuxLeaks scandal. Philippe Lamberts told EUROPE that the group had collected 140, mainly from the group and members of other groups, including some 20 Socialists.
Over at the S&D, however, entirely different instructions were circulating in a letter from the Italian leader, Gianni Pittella: the Socialists are opposed to a committee of investigation because under EP rules, its scope would be too restrictive. “We support the drafting of a legislative own-initiative report by the committee on economic and monetary affairs on the measures to be taken to increase tax transparency and fight tax fraud”, Pittella's letter stated. The EPP seems to be on board with this position. Although the M5S members belonging to the EFDD group were invited to sign, the Greens/EFA group will not be looking for signatures from MEPs any more Eurosceptic than that and certainly not Europhobic ones, Lamberts stressed. At the same time, a decision could be made either this Thursday or next week on an own-initiative report or two.
On Twitter, the European Trade Unions Confederation supported the calls for a committee of investigation of this kind. More than 30 organisations of the 'Tax Justice Europe Network' did likewise in a letter sent out to all members of the European Parliament. (EL)